Repainting old brass locomotive

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased an old brass locomotive. I was factory painted, but brass is now showing in several places. Do I strip the old paint off first? If so how would one go about it? Or do I just clean the loco and repaint?[8D]

[orsonroy]

I'd recommend stripping off all the old paint first. There are several ways to do this, but in general, a micro-sandblaster works the best, and will take off what's quite possibly 2-3 coats of paint (factory brass paint, possibly a primer coat, and the current color). You can also use an ultrasonic cleaner, 91% denatured alcohol, or other purpose-made paint strippers.

You'll have to take the engine apart fairly extensively, and will probably have to resolder a few parts that get knocked loose during the stripping/disassembly phase. Refinishing an old steamer isn't necessarily a fast & easy process, but it's definitely worth it in the end!

[ndbprr]

Since I paint my own I have developed a way to cover the chips that sometimes happen. I airbrush and the paint isn't too thick but I fill in the chip using a high quality small paint brush and then weather over it too match the existing weathering. You would need a maginfying glass to find where the chip was. if it doesn't work what have you lost?

[dknelson]

If you repaint brass each time the paint chips off you'll be doing a lot of painting, because this happens a lot. I agree with ndbprr .... explore some alternatives first. There is an entire line of new materials for painting -- they look like tiny tiny Q-tips in a variety of tip sizes but they are really small and do not loose their fuzz like real Q tips do. There is also a new line of micro brushes -- throw aways -- at the local hobby shop in the paint section. I'd give these a try, perhaps with hand mixed acrylic paints (it is so easy to change the shade of paint).
Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

If the model only needs a touch up here and there, I'd recommend just brush painting those areas. But...Stann99 said that the brass was showing in several places. To me, that neans the model really needs a strip and repaint.

Stann99 should also consider looking into baking on the new paint coat after it's applied. A baked-on coat of paint (ONLY on all-metal models!) will resist chipping.

[AntonioFP45]

This is a different approach but worth checking out.

For those of you that have access to professional automotive primer & paint..

Would work very well with brass locomotives and with Acrylic Enamel in Basecoat/Clearcoat form, the paint job would last a very long time! DuPont has a "Spectramaster Book" with literally thousands of sample color tint chips. (Not car colors.) This is how a railroad color could be easily matched.

Once stripped, clean the brass surface thoroughly with a wax and grease remover. A zinc based etch primer would be applied to the surface, followed by sealer. Wet sand, if the sealer did not go on smoothly enough. Apply the base color followed by clear. A flattener can be added to the clear to dull down the finish. The result will be a paint job that's just as tough as what's on modern cars.

This is just the "bare basics"of it, but if anyone is interested I can give you a step by step detail on the actual refinishing procedures. A few years ago, my students refinished a large scale S12 switcher in the black and red Seaboard Airline scheme. The result was impressive. The locomotive can be seen at the Largo Central Railroad club. The pictures should still be on the website.